But the terror gave rise to heroes who urgently helped those who were wounded in the ordeal. Ordinary people became paramedics.

"There were so many people, just normal citizens, doctors, cops, paramedics, nurses, just off-duty. Everyone's just communicating and working together," said a festival-goer Vanessa. "It was completely horrible, but it was absolutely amazing to see all the people come together."

One man's story is just a small fraction of what people did to get the wounded out of harm's way.

"There were a lot of people that were selfless and stayed behind with people," said another witness Mike Cronk.

The retired teacher braved gunfire and used his shirt to stop bleeding of his friend who had been shot three times. They then hid under the stage.

"We slid him under the stage. Another awesome lady came over and compressed," Cronk recalled.

It took an army of strangers to rush the injured to first responders. Cronk said he along with other able-bodied festival-goers carried their wounded person to a regular civilian pickup truck that had three injured people already in it.

One of those four wounded died, but Cronk's best friend survived.

"I'm no hero," Cronk said. "But there's a lot of heroes out there."

So far, more than 400 people were hospitalized from the festival shooting.